During the presidential debate organized this Tuesday by TIME Editorial House and the Semana Group different positions, ideas and personalities of the 10 pre-candidates invited to this face-to-face meeting were revealed in which they were able to present their proposals on different fronts, one of them in economic matters.
(Presidential debate: what the candidates said on economic matters).
Even so, and despite the great differences that distance them, there are coincidences between their positions, one of them around the fight against corruption, a scourge that everyone intends to fight if they reach the Presidency. However, and beyond such an obvious topic, there are more elements in which they also agree with each other.
But, what else can such disparate figures as Gustavo Petro, Oscar Iván Zuluaga, Alejandro Gaviria, Francia Márquez, Sergio Fajardo and Camilo Romero agree on?
All of them stated that if they were presidents of Colombia they would carry out a tax reform in their Government.
(The country proposed by the presidential candidates).
On the other hand, in the other line are Ingrid Betancourt, Federico Gutiérrez, Rodolfo Hernández and Juan Manuel Galán, who stated that before resorting to a tax reform they should think of other formulas to cover the fiscal gap without resorting to taxes.
Betancourt and Hernández agree that the big problem lies in political corruption and insist that the way to avoid touching the pockets of Colombians is to banish corruption at its highest levels.
“The problem is not the tax reform, in fact we have a ‘tax reform’ every year and that is caused by the system of political corruption. We have to put an end to that”, Ingrid Betancourt stated during one of her interventions.
Close to that line is Juan Manuel Galán, who said that, in addition to eradicating political corruption to avoid tax reform, one should also think about “confront the criminal structures and mafias of drug trafficking, smuggling, land dispossession, criminal mining and public procurement, which steal billions of pesos a year from us and do not let us advance as a society.”
For his part, Federico Gutiérrez pointed out that in order to avoid tax reform, his government would seek to grow above 5% under a system in which “no tax evasion”, based on austerity and the reduction of public spending.
The candidates agree that they will fight against corruption.
Hector Fabio Zamora / TIME
A REFORM AND ‘A THOUSAND PATHS’
Among the group of those who would carry out a tax reform, several differences can also be found in the main axes.
Among the fundamental coincidences of the ‘pro-reform’ is found to decrease the current exemptions.
Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez used the term “tax justice” to refer to the fact that those who accumulate the most capital in the country should be the ones who pay the most taxes to contribute to the social welfare of the impoverished majorities. By removing these exceptions, those who have more resources would contribute more and not the other way around.
Petro added that through his reform a presumptive income would be created to avoid tax havens.
Gaviria, for his part, proposes a tax reform designed to create jobs. For this, it would reduce the rates to companies so that they can contract. Its goal is to generate 1.5 million jobs. Also, it would create more carbon taxes.
According to Sergio Fajardo, The foundations of the tax reform would be based on the application of taxes on assets, on dividends and the elimination of exceptions. so that the richest people pay more taxes.
(Presidential 2022: Ingrid Betancourt is launched and Dilian withdraws).
For Camilo Romero, the pillars of his tax reform would be so different from the current one that he himself classified it as the “counter-reform”.
“Without a doubt there will be a reform. The country requires a progressive, equitable and efficient tax reform (…) This is achieved, of course, by removing the scoundrel of so many exemptions that big capital finally ends up paying much less at the effective rate than an ordinary citizen of this country”.
Finally, Oscar Ivan Zuluaga insists on eliminating the 4 X 1,000, a tax that he considers anti-technical and aims, in its reform, to eliminate operating expenses, based on savings and the culture of austerity.
JAVIER ACOSTA
BRIEFCASE
